Iowa economist predict slow, steady economic growth

Slow and steady — that’s the forecast for Iowa’s economy from an economic forecasting group at the University of Iowa. Charles White is a professor of economics there, and says he doesn’t foresee “fireworks” in the near future for Iowa’s economy. He says “We had our fireworks in the last 2 months of 2004, when economic growth in Iowa and elsewhere was really, really strong.” He says we saw inflation-adjusted income growth at more than 8-percent, as strong as it was anywhere in the nation and “really out there,” according to the professor. Going forward, he says he doesn’t expect the same kind of increases, though he’ll expect something to closer to 4-percent growth, “which is really quite a nice clip.” White is also director of the Institute for Economic Research at the University of Iowa. He says there are few dark clouds on the horizon for the state’s economy, and in particular he expects to see workers do well. He expects strong growth in wage and salary disbursement. He says salaried and hourly employees will be among those to benefit, and there’ll be less of an increase in “property income.” White says that’s somewhat the reverse of what we saw over the past year. That means, explains the economist, that rank-and-file people going to work every day should see their incomes rise over the next year and-a-half, akin to what we saw in the last year. White says the institute’s forecasts come out quarterly and are longterm views of the economy, often disregarding what may be temporary highs and lows. “You have to understand that the data we get about history comes with a lag, so sometimes we’re predicting something we should have known about a month ago, but the data haven’t been released yet.”